Gender Female First appearance Series 4, Episode 1 | Portrayed by Anna Chancellor Last appearance Spooks | |
Occupation Head of Yalta; former National Security Coordinator Similar Zafar Younis, Malcolm Wynn‑Jones, Jo Portman, Tessa Phillips, Ros Myers | ||
Juliet Shaw is a fictional character in the British TV show Spooks, portrayed by British actress Anna Chancellor. She rose fast as a spy, achieving the position of National Security Coordinator, at the Cabinet Office. She worked with Harry Pearce on a number of operations during the 1970s.
Harry Pearce describes her as ruthless, right-wing, and crazy, who'll stop at nothing to protect Britain. She is driven and single-minded, with a take-no-prisoners attitude, which some find highly attractive. She cares little for the impact of her words, and will often talk bluntly rather than in a roundabout way.
She was left apparently paralysed from the waist down by a car bomb attack on the Home Secretary, Nicholas Blake in Series 5 Episode 1, during a chain of terrorist attacks, but reappeared later in the series in a wheelchair. Juliet may harbour a grudge against Ros Myers, since it was her father, Sir Jocelyn Myers, who organised the chain of attacks that ultimately led to the car bomb and her paralysis. However, she reappears in series 6 as a high-ranking Yalta operative – stating that she had been working with the organisation under deep cover – freely walking around and apparently unparalysed.
In the same episode that she is revealed as a member of Yalta, she is the person who 'kills' Ros by injecting her with what she thought was a lethal nerve agent. Believing Ros to be dead, Juliet escaped to fight another day; however, unbeknownst to her, Adam had switched the syringes and so Ros was merely put into a deathlike state until her funeral, where Adam helped her escape into anonymity.
As far as is known, Juliet is still out there somewhere. She never makes an appearance again.